Prior art workers have devised a great number of different types of fishing lures depending upon the type of fish to be caught, and the conditions under which the act of fishing is performed. While the teachings of the present invention are applicable to many types of lures wherein the action of spinners is desirable together with the production of fish attracting noise, for purposes of an exemplary showing they will be described in their application to surface-type lures utilized to catch large mouth bass and the like. More specifically, the teachings of the present invention will be described in their application to that type of fishing lure which has come to be known in the trade as a "buzz bait".
An example of such a lure is taught in U.S. Pat. No. 3,093,923. In this reference, the lure comprises a wire-like frame formed so as to provide an attachment loop for a fishing line, together with a pair of generally rearwardly extending arms. One arm is located above the other, with the lower arm being somewhat longer than the upper arm. The lower arm terminates in a spoon or wobbler plate. Affixed rigidly to the spoon and extending rearwardly thereof there is a fish hook terminating in an upstanded, barbed end. The hook may be substantially concealed by a cluster of feathers affixed to the hook shank. The upper arm rotatively mounts a single spinner.
Lures having more than one spinner mounted in tandem on a single shaft are well known, as is exemplified by U.S. Pat. Nos. 2,722,079; 3,766,682 and 4,447,980. U.S. Pat. No. 3,439,443 teaches the use of two spinners on a single shaft in a fishing lure. In this instance, one of the spinners is large and has a hollow central portion. The other spinner is small and is located on the same shaft within the hollow central portion of the large spinner. One of the spinners has permanently magnetized parts which attract the other spinner such that the spinning movement of the spinners is non-uniform and unsteady. The use of two spinners on a buzz bait-type lure, one spinner located on each of the wire-like arms, is taught in U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,750,325 and 4,201,008.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,112,576 teaches the provision of a lure having at least two tandemly mounted spinners on the same shaft, the spinners rotating in opposite directions. U.S. Pat. No. 3,987,478 teaches a fishing lure which emits a pulsed vibration when drawn through the water so as to attract the fish. The lure comprises a wire-like shaft terminating in a hook, or affixed to a hook. The shaft has a stabilizing member at its rearward end. Rotatively mounted on the shaft ahead of the stabilizing member is a blade or spinner. Ahead of the blade a number of beads are mounted on the shaft, capable of axial shifting thereon. The rotating blade is provided with a helical cam which cooperates with the stabilizing member to cause the blade and beads to shift forwardly on the shaft during rotation, followed by a sharp rearward movement thereof, emitting a sonic pulse. These pulses are repeated as the lure is drawn through the water.
Finally, U.S. Pat. No. 4,510,710 teaches a buzz bait-type lure having a single lower arm supporting a hook, a head, and a skirt surrounding the hook. The lure additionally has two substantially parallel upper arms, each supporting a spinner. The spinners are spaced from each other by a distance such that, as they rotate, their blade portions strike each other. Buzz bait lures have been devised with a single spinner so positioned that its blades contact the frame of the lure creating a fish attracting sound.
The present invention is based upon the discovery that a pair of similar blades can be rotatively mounted on the same shaft-like element of a lure (such as the upper wire-like arm of a buzz bait-type lure), and can be configured to rotate in the same direction at different speeds, with the result that the blades will strike each other producing a fish-attracting noise. This can be accomplished without interference in the overall rotation of the spinners and without having to maintain two spinner-carrying shafts carefully spaced from each other or a single spinner shaft carefully spaced from some other part of the lure frame. The blade assembly of the present invention produces a clicking or chattering sound which attracts fish. The nested positioning of the blades tends to shed grass or weeds, and the lure will run through tree tops virtually snagless. The blades of each spinner bear certain angular relationships to their respective spinner body, which enable the spinners to work throughout the retrieval length of a long cast or a short cast. Certain of the angular relationships can be adjusted to regulate the noise produced by the spinners so that the clicking or chattering noise is made up of a plurality of vibrant "pings" rather than dead sounding "clunks". A buzz bait-type lure can be made in accordance with the teachings of the present invention easily and inexpensively and adjustments can be readily made to improve its performance.